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The Ambassador

Ru & I made a surprise appearance at our Sunday greyhound hike, so he could sniff hello with the other greys and I could get out of the house for a little while. He was happy to see other dogs and to get affection and attention from all the other owners. I was happy to talk to people, as I’m going crazy here at home.

A few of them had seen the horrible photo of his leg 1 week after the attack, while some of others knew they wouldn’t be able to handle such a gory sight. They all dished the stories about how their greys managed to rip out stitches from past injuries, and were happy to see how well Ru’s wounds were healing, less than a week after surgery. One of the owners told me about how she made a flak-vest for her grey, to keep him from going after stitches on the middle of his back.

Once we got home, I opened my work e-mail and discovered that one of the PR guys I work with is going to adopt a grey this week! He and his wife had been thinking of getting a dog for a while, he told me. Between the various pictures of Rufus that I’ve run in my magazine’s From the Editor page, and the story of Ru’s injuries he heard after the BIO show, they decided to contact their local greyhound rescue group. They’re picking up their 2-year-old male this Thursday, after getting assurances that he’ll be okay around their two cats.

He lives in Philadelphia, so I told him that we’ll have to meet halfway in September, at the big greyhound picnic in Bridgewater, NJ!

Here are the pix he sent over of his soon-to-be fur-kid:

grey1

grey2

I like his dainty, cross-front-legged stance. Very coquettish.

And, just to tug on your heartstrings a little more, here’s a pic of The Ambassador from yesterday afternoon, hanging out down in my library:

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Family Affair

This piece by baseball player Doug Glanville on how little players know about their teammates’ lives reminded me of the story about how Michael Jordan was shocked to discover that his teammate Steve Kerr’s father had been shot to death, albeit under much different circumstances than Jordan’s dad’s shooting death (PLO vs. two of the dumbest criminals ever).

I can’t recall if Jordan learned about that common bond before or after punching Kerr in the face during practice for guarding him too tightly.

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A stitch in Ru

About one hour after I posted that item on how great Rufus’ bandages were holding up, they began their pilgrimage  down his leg. Still, this wrap lasted nearly 48 hours after his Tuesday surgery, which saved me a ton of aggravation.

We went down for a 1pm followup and rebandage today. Both our lead vet (Dr. A) and the vet who handled Rufus’ first operation (Dr. R) came in to check him out. Dr. A cut off the failing bandages, carefully peeled the tape from Rufus’ tender skin, and announced, “WOW! He’s healing great!”

He assumed that some of the stitches would have torn by now, either through Rufus’ attempts at getting to them or just through his regular activity. I didn’t tell them that I’ve been on 24-hour alert, zooming into action the moment I hear the jangle of the metal tags on Rufus’ collar. But I did let them know that, while I let Ru walk down the stairs because he knows to keep from using that leg, I still carry him up the stairs as well as into the car. I figure the strain of that motion, where he pushes off with both rear legs, is more likely to cause the stitches to tear, especially with the double-leap he’d have to do in order to climb our stairs. Dr. R was glad that I wasn’t making little exceptions and taking shortcuts.

Then Dr. A said, “Well, it looks like we’re done with bandages!”

“Excuse me?” I said, shocked and already making a mental inventory of the self-adhering bandages, gauze wraps, sterile pads and other accoutrements that we’ve stockpiled.

“He’s healing so well, I don’t think he needs the bandages anymore. As long as you can keep him from reaching back there and chewing on his stitches, he should be fine till we take them out in a week or so.”

Dr. R added that she couldn’t believe how much better his skin was than when she performed the first surgery, a day after the attack. “There really wasn’t much skin to work with,” she said, “but this looks great.”

Dr. A recommended we pick up a compression wrap of some kind that can slide over the leg to protect it from Ru’s compulsive grooming, but said that his sweatshirt-cum-hip-wader was a good setup to keep the area covered. They still want us to keep Ru’s activity restricted — yard-only bathroom breaks, with no full walkies — but felt that it would be fine for Ru to promenade tomorrow morning at the farmer’s market.

Rufus, meanwhile, is simply thankful that there’s no more medical tape involved.

And, once again, the exam room turned into the stateroom scene from A Night at the Opera, as virtually every employee of the animal hospital came in to say hello to Rufus, give him some rubbies and scratchies, and get a look at his big, heart-melting eyes.

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Did he use Krazy Glue?

No Rufus news since our last update, except to note that the bandages our vet applied after Ru’s surgery on Tuesday are still holding up! This is a great relief to me, as a big source of my consternation and anxiety during this episode has been the need to constantly reapply bandages and figure out how to keep both of Ru’s wounds covered and protected.

Last night, Nancy, one of the people from Greyhound Friends NJ who helped us adopt Rufus, stopped by to drop off a cage-type muzzle for Rufus, and also to see how he’s doing. She brought Cali, her grey-girl, along. Ru was happy to make Cali’s acquaintance, but he spent most of his time leaning against Nancy and getting rubs & scratches. And a couple of times, he simply wedged himself between Nancy and her old girl, so he could get himself a little extra love.

Today, he’s pretty much just zonked out on his bed in my home office while I do research for my July/August issue. I let him walk down the stairs on his own, because he keeps from using that rear paw when he does that, but I still carry him up the stairs like Cole Porter’s manservant.

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Move Along. No Internet To See Here

To me, the most fascinating aspect of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre is that China’s government has blocked a number of western websites and services — Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and more — to keep its people from reading anything about the historical event.

Can the absence of something speak more loudly than the thing itself? It sounds like something out of a Samuel Delany novel, in which the  very language of protest is subtly excised from a people.

One problem with wiping out history like this is that subsequent generations have so little idea of what happened that they inadvertently let the truth out simply because they don’t even know something was suppressed, as happened on the 18th anniversary.

I also wonder how “the people” will interpret the week-long shuttering of their favorite social networking sites “for maintenance”. If this becomes an annual occurrence, will the week of June 4 eventually become known in China as Dark Internet Week? Will they start to develop conspiracy theories as to why this keeps happening? Will they infer motivations more sinister than the Tiananmen Square Massacre itself?

Anyway Here’s a neat New York Times piece on That Guy Who Stood In Front Of The Line Of Tanks, which still ranks as the greatest f*** you moment ever caught on film.

And here’s a post about the anniversary in Beijing from James Fallows, the Atlantic’s correspondent in China. You can go check out his excellent blog for a bunch of posts about how arbitrary China’s media censorship has been this week.

(UPDATE! Maybe the original Tiananmen Square Protests were meant as an anniversary celebration for ten-cent beer night.)

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Flipped out

I know all these Rufus recovery posts can be pretty exhausting. Here’s a little reminder of who we’re talking about, mere hours after yesterday’s surgery:

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Don’t Crate Me In

Ready for another Rufus update? I thought so!

Our boy went to the animal hospital for surgery today, and all went wonderfully! The vet said that he managed to stitch up the entire rear wound, and about 80% of the front wound. If the sutures hold up (read: if we keep Ru from noshing on them or tearing them with too much activity) then he may be able to get by without a third operation!

So, sentimentality and dignity and such aside, I put his BiteNot collar — thanks, JB Pets! — on him when I got him home. Uncomfortable though it is (well, “though it looks“), I’m willing to take that over panicking every time I leave the room that he’s going to lick his wounds and tear his stitches. And, following Greyhound Jane’s advice, I’ll also put his nylon muzzle on him along with a little duct tape when I have to go out for lunch or anything. Thanks, Jane!

Meanwhile, the owners of the attacking dog just sent a letter claiming, contra the police report, that Rufus was being walked in their yard and that the Akita “proceeded to defend their property.” Which is to say, they’re trying to get out of paying the bills, although they are “willing to share some of the responsibility for the bills you incur once all necessary treatments for the incident have been completed.” Emphasis theirs.

Sigh. I should note that neither owner was home to witness this attack, and it occurred 3 weeks after their Akita came out of the yard and attacked another dog.

So, I’ll get my lawyer on that. As is, I haven’t even sent ’em the bills from CVS, RiteAid, Stop & Shop, and Wayne Pharmacy (two paws up! if only they had a website to plug) for all the bandages, gauze pads and other supplies that we’ve had to use to keep Ru’s wounds protected.

I told the vet about this claim of theirs, and he said, “He was in their yard, ON HIS LEASH?” He also reiterated his claim that he’d never seen muscle torn out of a dog’s leg like that, and still doesn’t get how my boy was able to walk on it.

Oh, and he thinks his latest bandage-job is going to last three days! Bwah-ha-ha!

I told him his last one didn’t reach the six-hour mark; he slit his eyes and said, “Well, if your dog’s leg was just built upside-down, this bandage would work fine!”